Tell officials your priorities
On Tuesday, January 4, the Minnesota Legislature went into session. They have a budget deficit to deal with, but history has shown that probably won't stop anti-choice legislators from injecting their personal ideology into bills. During the last session, anti-choice legislators passed the infamous 24-hour waiting period by inserting it into a bill regulating circuses! As they begin their work, please take one minute to tell your representatives what your priorities are. We want them to hear that Minnesotans are interested in results, not ideological grandstanding. >> Contact your legislators today - it's easy! ANTI-CHOICE INTIATIVES
1. Super Gag Rule – Places a litmus test for state funding. Would restrict state funding to family planning and other vital programs if the programs refer patients for abortion, take any sort of pro-choice position, or consider abortion to be part of the "continuum of family planning services, reproductive health services, or both."
2. Anti-Choice Constitutional Amendment – A measure to be passed by the Legislature and put to the ballot in Nov. 2006. The proposal would allow abortion to be banned in Minnesota should the Supreme Court overturn or modify Roe v. Wade.
3. Cuts in Family Planning – A move to place disproportionate cuts in family planning programs is quite possible. In the past, anti-choice legislators have sought to restrict family planning funds to programs that only work on “natural family planning.” PRO-CHOICE INTIATIVES
1. EC in the ER – Each year NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota introduces the Emergency Care for Survivors of Sexual Assault and each year the House Health & Human Services Committee refuses to give it a hearing. The bill would require hospital emergency rooms to make emergency contraception available to rape survivors. With the committee chair, Rep. Boudreau, defeated last fall, we plan a renewed push for the Legislature to pass this compassionate and common sense proposal.
2. Minnesota Reproductive Privacy Act – Would prohibit in state statute, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy.
3. Comprehensive Sexuality Education - NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota will work with a broad coalition to promote legislation that would set statewide standards for a results-based, comprehensive sex education curriculum which would be abstinence-based but give kids all the facts so they can make responsible and safe decisions.
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